Helium is the second most abundant element in the Universe, Helium however has a minimal presence of 5 ppm atmospheric on planet earth. However, Helium is also a byproduct of radioactive decay in the core of the earth that reappears as a natural gas component, whereby Helium is recovered via fractional distillation by liquefaction of the natural gas component and hence compressed for bulk transportation because of cryogenic chilling and bulk liquefaction complications.
The issue at stake is liquefaction of Helium. Although liquid Nitrogen and liquid Hydrogen may be applied to precool compressed Helium to 70K and 15K respectively, the 70/4K and 15/4K into the Helium saturation zone is extremely complex and costly to bridge because of (1) the perfect (IDEAL GAS) molecular (Helium) structure whereby enthalpy h=U+pV reduces to Δh=AU (internal energy)=Cp×Δt (a function of temperature) only and (2) 1st and 2nd Laws of thermodynamics whereby energy cannot be created or destroyed and heat can only flow from a warm to a cold source/sink respectively within the bounds of isentropic irreversibility.
The present state of art for liquefaction of Helium is limited to (1) Linde (1913) compression regression methodology and (2) Claude (1950) (turbo expansion) and work of via turbo expansion into the 4K Absolute-zero Helium distillation/liquefaction threshold. Because refrigeration becomes exponentially complex in the cryogenic zone, Carnot efficiency falls dramatically below 50K whereby the cost at 4K refrigeration equates to at least seventy-five times the cost at 300K refrigeration.
In order to overcome the constraints of (1) isentropic irreversibility generally (2) Carnot non-event and (3) Joule-Thomson dead-zone, a simple and highly efficient system and method for liquefaction of helium is desired.